


Their Last Battle

by Willowflower_Waterlily



Series: Marie Hawke and Rei Trevelyan [13]
Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-08
Updated: 2015-04-08
Packaged: 2018-03-21 22:30:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3706349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Willowflower_Waterlily/pseuds/Willowflower_Waterlily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On their way home from a trip to Redcliffe, their camp is surrounded by red Templars. Will anyone make it back to Skyhold unscathed?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Rei helped Bull set up camp for the night as Dorian started the fire for dinner, and Anders prepped the meat from the game they killed on the way to the camp. They're at the last camp between Redcliffe and Skyhold. As the day turned to night, Rei and Dorian laid on their backs and pointed out constellations among the stars. A whistle in the night made them sit up abruptly. They nodded at each other and headed back to camp. They heard another soft whistle carry in the breeze almost sounding like a response to the first. "We're surrounded." Bull said quietly. 

"How do you..." Anders started to say. When he didn't finish his thought, Rei looked up in time to see him fall to the ground, an arrow in his chest.

"Anders!" She screamed and ran toward him. He stared up into nothingness, the arrow pierced his heart. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she closed her friends eyes. She planted a kiss on his cooling forehead, and whispered a prayer. Red Templars came out of the darkness, circling their camp. One held a brand for the right of tranquility in his hand. Rei pointed her left hand above him, and opened a rift that sucked in about half of the red Templars. The ones remaining swarmed onto Bull as he screamed for Rei and Dorian to run. Before Rei could argue, Dorian grabbed her hand, and they ran blindly into the woods. As the sound of fighting dimmed, they slowed down.

"We can't leave him there." Rei said, tears pouring down her face.

"Amatus." Dorian whispered, his grief too much for either of them. They looked up at the stars as they stood in a clearing, and orientated themselves. The pitch black of the woods engulfed them, and they held hands as they made their way back to Skyhold.

 

Hours go by, and finally, they saw Skyhold in the distance. As the sky lightened, they realized that they were being followed. Rei and Dorian broke out into a run, their pursuers hot on their heels. Rei put up a barrier around she and Dorian and prayed that they would make it to the gates before the Templars caught them. "Go ahead." Dorian said to her as they ran, "I'll stop them."

"No, I can't lose you too." Rei replied. She gripped his hand fiercely, and tried to will him to go on with her.

"Tell Cullen I'm sorry we couldn't protect you better." Dorian pulled his hand from hers and ran at the Templars while Rei ran from them. She sobbed as she heard Dorian's battle cry echo in the woods around her. She ran onto the road and straight to the gates. She could see the gates when she was tackled from behind, and dragged into the woods. 

"You're mine." The red Templar taunted. He threw her on the ground and silenced her. She tried to attack him physically, and he smited her. She went flying into a tree and blacked out.


	2. Chapter 2

"Report." Cullen said fiercely. 

"We spotted the Inquisitor running for the gate, but before we could even open the gate she was tackled and dragged into the woods. We ran in where we saw her being taken, but she wasn't there. There was blood on one of the trees." One of the guards said, and Cullen braced himself on his desk. 

"Anything of her companions."

"Yes." The same guard said, lowering his eyes. "Dorian was found slain in the woods, with in sight of Skyhold. And we got a message back today from one of the scouts that found the bodies of The Iron Bull and Anders at the camp they had set up last night. It looks as though they had been ambushed. There was a pile of red Templar bodies around The Iron Bull, and Anders was killed by an arrow."

"Find the Inquisitor." Cullen growled as he dismissed the guards. he put his hand to his head as the world swam around him. Cullen pulled himself together and pulled out a map of the area. He knew there was a cave close to where the guards saw Rei being pulled off the road. He called in his officers and told them that they would be looking there, and he would be accompanying them.

 

In short order, Cullen and a battalion of soldiers made their way through the woods to the cave that he remembered Marie hiding Anders in. As they got closer, they heard Rei's screams echo from the cave. Cullen ran in with the soldiers right behind him. He's stomach turned at what they encountered at the back of the cave. Rei was tied up by the arms and hanging unconscious, surrounded by a group of red Templars. They turned to face Cullen and the soldiers. The fight was quick and bloody. "Rei!" Cullen cried as he ran up to her unconscious body, her hair stained red with blood.

"Cullen." She replied and she coughed. Blood leaked from her mouth as she coughed. Cullen cut her bonds and gently laid her on the ground. It was then that he noticed the amount of blood that had pooled at her feet.

"No." Cullen said, as he wept openly. "Stay with me. We'll get you home and to a healer." He cradled her in his arms and lifted Rei up.

"I... I won't make it." Rei whispered. "I'm so sorry." She nuzzled into the fur around his neck and lost consciousness. Cullen ran out of the cave and to Skyhold. His love's life depended on him.


	3. Chapter 3

Cullen screamed for healers as he entered Skyhold holding Rei. He ran toward the healer's clinic in the courtyard and delicately laid Rei down upon a cot. The healer pushed Cullen out of the way and examined his love. Tears streaked down the healer's face as he turned to Cullen. "I'm so sorry, Commander, but she is already gone."

"No!" Cullen screamed at the healer, and caused him to flinch. "She can't be gone." Cullen sobbed into Rei's hair as he wrapped his arm around her body. People in the area stopped and bowed their heads in mourning. Cole appeared beside Cullen and wrapped his arms around the larger man as he grieved.

 

The following day Rei, Dorian, Bull, and Anders were laid beside one another on two large pyres in the courtyard. Cullen held the girls close to him, and prayed that this was some terrible nightmare that he would wake from to find Rei beside him in their bed. The pain he felt in his heart told him it wasn't a dream, but reality. Brena and Mina held one another and cried as Cullen had one of his arms around both of him. In his other arm he held Isabel who was sobbing into his furry pauldrons. "I am, so sorry for your loss." Fenris said as he stood beside Cullen.

"I keep thinking that this is some terrible nightmare that I'll wake up from any minute." Cullen replied and Fenris nodded.

"Sometimes reality can be the nightmare." Fenris said and walked off to give Cullen some quiet.

 

At nightfall, Mother Giselle led all of Skyhold in chanting, and set the pyres ablaze when it was over. Cullen and the girls stayed and watched the pyres burn, until Isabel fell asleep against Cullen's chest. "Uncle Cullen," Mina said, and Cullen looked down at her. "What's going to happen to us now?"

"Well, I'll have to talk about it with your grandparents, but I would keep you with me, if I have any say." Cullen responded

"I want to stay with you." Brena said. She leaned into Cullen and cried. "You're the only daddy I've ever known and I don't want to lose you." She sobbed into his side.

"Come on, my girls." Cullen said, "I think it's time you three go to bed."

 

Cullen sat down at the desk in his room, and stared out at the large bed. He dreaded sleeping that night. The sheets still smelled of her. He wrote a letter to Rei's parents, and sealed it. He prayed that he would be able to keep Mina and Brena with him. They were his daughters, and he wanted to raise them, regardless of them not being his blood. Cullen stood up and walked out the door for the rookery, with letter in hand.

 

A couple of weeks later, the horns for the gate were blown and Cullen ran to the courtyard as the gates opened. Rei's parents and a scant amount of men rode into the gates. Reimond vaulted off his horse and made a beeline for Cullen. He embraced his son-in-law and they wept in each others arms. Lily dismounted and walked toward the men, and Cullen grasped her and held her close as she mourned the loss of her daughter. "All my girls are gone." She said, her eyes red and puffy from several days of crying.

 

Cullen brought the girls to see their grandparents after their studies. Brena and Mina clung to either side of Cullen, and refused to let go. Reimond knelt in front of Cullen and held his hands out to them. "I promise you we won't force you to come back with us. We just want to see you." The girls let go of Cullen and into Reimond's embrace. "Your grandmother and I love you, never forget that." Mina and Brena nodded against his shoulders and he let them go. Reimond and Lily stayed a few days before they left for Ostwick, with a promise that they would visit more often. Cullen prayed he could raise the girls right, and that they would be strong and capable adults one day.

 

Part of him still hoped he'd wake up and find Rei asleep beside him, but as each new day dawned, the hope dwindled, until it was too tiny to feel. Swallowed by the ache in his heart that never seemed to cease.


End file.
